Existing comment:
The Politics of Memory
"I want to make sure that whoever did this knows that... [e]very time [this sign is] taken down, it's going back up."
-- Jerome "G" Little, October 30, 2008
History is an active battleground. 317 bullets pierced this sign, one of five Till markers that have been systematically attacked. The sign is part of an ongoing fight on the landscape over what is remembered or suppressed.
The Emmett Till Memorial Commission has replaced this sign three times in 11 years. These acts are not random vandalism. The calculated violence mimics attacks on Till's body and is intended to terrorize Black people.
Preservation can enact violence against Black communities when it suppresses or delegitimizes Black history. Owners of the property were Emmett Till crossed paths with his accuser received state historic preservation funds. They left the storefront dilapidated and instead restored a historically insignificant gas station next door. |